EU demands Marine Le Pen return 'irregular' £300,000 payment

The European Parliament is demanding that Marine Le Pen return about £300,000 in alleged “irregular” payments to aides of the French far-Right leader, who is an MEP.

According to the European Anti-Fraud Office, Ms Le Pen claimed the money in salaries for two of her aides, who were engaged as parliamentary assistants but in fact worked for her Front National party.

The office alleges that they did not work on parliamentary business or assist Ms Le Pen in her duties as an MEP. The aides were named by the French investigative website Mediapart and the weekly magazine Marianne as Thierry Légier and Catherine Griset.

The money was allegedly paid to Mr Légier in 2011, and to Ms Griset between 2010 and this year.

The French media reports were confirmed by a source close to the investigation.

Ms Le Pen, who will be a candidate in the presidential election in six months, wants to hold a “Frexit” referendum to allow voters to decide whether France should leave the European Union.

Florian Philippot, her deputy, dismissed the fraud accusations as politically motivated. "At the European Union, the arbitrary reigns," he told the French news channel BFM.

"It goes easy on its friends... and is merciless with its adversaries.”

Ms Le Pen herself has not commented on the allegations. Her lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told the AFP news agency that she will not cooperate unless she receives the full report on the investigation from the European Anti-Fraud Office.

He questioned how a distinction could be drawn between work performed for Ms Le Pen as an MEP or as party leader.

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"How can you possibly separate the activities of a MEP and the president of a major political party?” Mr Ceccaldi said. "European debates and questions on French society, such as migration and Europe's visa-free Schengen policy, are intimately linked.”

The EU is pursuing a similar case against Ms Le Pen's estranged father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the Front National, who is also an MEP.

Brussels wants him to reimburse nearly £290,000 which it alleges was wrongly paid to his parliamentary assistant. French police are separately investigating allegations of irregular payments to Front National European parliamentary assistants.

As an MEP, Ms Le Pen enjoys parliamentary immunity from legal proceedings. Her father's immunity was lifted last week in a separate case after French prosecutors called for him to stand trial on charges of inciting racial hatred.